


The Way She Moves

by EuphoniousGlow



Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Gen, Gen Fic, Humor, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-21
Updated: 2010-07-21
Packaged: 2017-10-10 17:11:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/102119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EuphoniousGlow/pseuds/EuphoniousGlow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naoto Shirogane never backs down from a challenge. Even when it involves something like DDR.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Way She Moves

It was Yosuke's idea to celebrate the start of the summer holiday at an arcade. Which, of course, meant that someone would end up injured, insulted, forced to cross-dress, or any combination of the three. So Naoto was about to point out the logic of her reluctance to join in such childish endeavors, but Rise and Teddie immediately agreed, with those two athletes who were friends with Souji adding their assent. It all went downhill from there.

All she could do was sigh as she was pushed along.

The arcade was a foreign land right out of her nightmares. Loud, garish, blinking machines everywhere. Children and teenagers stumbling along and almost running into her. The smell of buttered popcorn and something unpleasantly like vomit. The group of teenagers gathered at a less crowded area. Those in attendance: Souji, who came to Inaba for the first month of vacation, Yosuke, Chie, Yukiko, Rise, Kanji, Teddie, Kou Ichijo, Daisuke Nagase, Ai Ebihara (surprisingly), and Naoki Konishi. And, of course, Naoto herself, as much as she wished at that very moment that she were back at her quiet home curled up with a good book and a glass of cool lemonade.

The group split up at first. Ichijo, Yosuke, Souji, Ebihara, and Nagase were at the basketball hoop. Yukiko sat at a motorcycle racing game while Chie gave advice from beside her, and was apparently winning. Naoki was playing the Whack-a-Mole game, fiercely swinging the mallet despite his lean frame, with Kanji wincing every time one of the cute little critters was hit. Naoto briefly wandered over to where Rise and Teddie were battling each other at air hockey, but she quickly decided it was a danger zone when Rise hit the puck too hard and it went flying past, narrowly missing Naoto.

"A bunch of savages," Naoto mumbled, standing with her hands in her pockets next to the coin change machine. The zombie shooting game briefly caught her eye, but she resisted the urge. It looked too easy, anyway.

Eventually Yosuke called them all together at what looked to be the very worst out of all the games she had yet seen here. The most garish, loud, and blinking of them all.

"Who's up for a DDR competition?" he said, winking. She hated that look. "Any takers?"

Rise jumped up on the small stage.

"Hey, no fair," Chie whispered. "Of course she'll be good at this stuff." And she was. Naoto was even somewhat impressed, despite herself. It was kind of hypnotizing, watching the way Rise's hair swayed with the movements of her slim hips. She found herself staring and wanted to shake her head, but it was too undignified of a gesture.

"Kujikawa's got it going on," Ichijo remarked, grinning. Ebihara frowned and tossed some of her hair over her shoulder. Rise finished her song, waved her hands out at them, and gracefully left the platform.

Eventually most of the others took a turn. Teddie was good but missed a few beats due to his overenthusiastic movements, and they literally had to drag him away from doing a third song. Souji was actually just average. He shrugged and moved on for someone else. Well, there was one thing he wasn't perfect at. Ebihara was terrible, Chie did well until a miss made her get frustrated and quit before her song was over. Ichijo and Nagase went up on both games at the same time and tried to see who was better (definitely the basketball player, she thought). Kanji and Naoki were both reluctant to try but also decided to go together. Naoki was quick and pretty good, and Kanji kept getting distracted and messing up by looking at him.

"All right, prepare to be owned," Yosuke said, and gave it a try. He was fast. Better than Rise. He would have probably finished with a higher score too if Teddie hadn't shouted something, causing him to trip over his feet.

He jumped off the platform, glaring at Teddie. But then his eyes drifted to Naoto, and his expression changed. It looked devilish.

"Hey, it's your turn now, Naoto."

"I would really rather not," she replied.

The smug bastard raised his eyebrows and grinned. "Is our detective prince afraid she doesn't have what it takes?"

There was a hard, steely look in her eyes. She straightened the collar of her blue shirt and cracked her knuckles. She pulled her cap low over her forehead.

"Hmph. The Shirogane family never backs down on a challenge. I'll show you how it's done."

She stepped up onto the platform, ignoring the jitters in her stomach from all the eyes on her.

"Kick his ass, Naoto-kun!" Chie yelled.

"Oooh, that was cool, Nao-chan," Teddie remarked.

She scrolled through the songs, eventually settling on the hardest one.

"Think you can handle it?" Yosuke called behind her. She ignored him and focused her attention on the song.

It was like a puzzle, one involving her body. She watched the arrows traveling up the screen, her keen mind picking out which movements she needed to make in order to match the arrows. The annoying, fast-paced disco music vibrated through her skin, but she ignored the song and focused on her footwork. Her eyes were narrow and determined, and her mouth was open slightly as she concentrated.

"Wow," she heard Yukiko whisper. "I didn't know she'd be so good at this."

The song ended. 99% appeared on the screen, the best score so far. Naoto adjusted her cap and tried to catch her breath. She turned around and met everyone's gaze. Kanji's mouth was wide open, and Naoki was smiling at him in amusement. Chie pumped a fist into the air and turned to Ichijo and Nagase for... payment? Rise clapped her on the back, and Teddie hugged her, practically crying with joy.

Her eyes met Yosuke's. He had a look on his face that suggested he was constipated.

She spoke first. "I believe this is what you call 'pwning'?" She smirked, allowed herself to childishly enjoy his distraught look for a brief moment, and walked past him with a haughty sashay to her movements.

DDR went up against Naoto Shirogane, and lost.


End file.
